REFLECTIONS OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON SOCIAL LIFE AND ADVICE TO PARENTS- ARTICLE GATE

 

Human as a social being; From birth, it begins to be raised by its parents so that it can socialize, survive, communicate and interact with its environment. Thus, the society, which comes together with people who socialize by communicating, has a set of unique values ​​called "culture" that affect people's behaviors and beliefs. 

In the 21st century digital life; With the widespread use of internet technology as a means of communication globally, digital culture, which is defined as the sum of material values ​​that individuals maintain in databases and online accounts, has begun to affect people's lives and beliefs. 

In digital life, people use digital environments to communicate and live their individual existence in these environments according to the values ​​brought by digital culture. Social media is the general name given to the digital environments that people use to communicate today. According to internet and social media usage statistics published in 2019; As active social media users, 45% of the world's population uses social media for an average of 2 hours and 16 minutes per day, and 63% of Turkey's population uses social media for an average of 2 hours and 46 minutes per day (Hootsuite and Wearesocial, 2019). Communication has never been this easy before social media. The fact that communication and access to people is so easy has changed our values ​​in a positive or negative way. We now have a new human typology. By speaking in public, the human being who shows his existence by producing; now it tries to show its existence by sharing messages, status and pictures on social media.

It is a proven fact that social media has many positive and negative effects on individuals' beliefs, attitudes and behaviors. The positive effects of social media on individuals; It arises from the richness of the possibilities of accessing and disseminating information, and its use as a communication tool and source of information. 

In social media, individuals can acquire and disseminate information very quickly with their friends. In this way, individuals have the opportunity to become famous, to be watched and appreciated by everyone, through social media. Another positive effect of social media on the attitudes and behaviors of individuals; If there is a pressure that goes beyond the borders and distances, it can be used as a communication tool against bullies. As social media facilitates access to and dissemination of information, positive effects on individuals' attitudes and behaviors; As a result of individuals exhibiting narcissistic, sadistic, self-interested behaviors and attitudes, it can also cause negative self and moral development in individuals' attitudes and behaviors. With social media culture, it used to be private, it was forbidden to share, 

Children can share their most special moments for the sake of getting likes. Unfortunately, most of the children have the perception that "The more special memories I share, the more likes I will be". Let's try to explain the corruption of social media in human moral values ​​with the example of an artificial intelligence bot named “Tay”. Developed by Microsoft in 2016 and working on Twitter, the artificial intelligence bot named “Tay”, which is programmed to learn and gain personality according to its interaction with people; He begins to correspond in a very calm and classical style. However, Thai; It is closed by Microsoft when it gains a character that produces sexuality, racism and profanity in a short time like 16 hours.

Developed as a result of intensive and misuse of social media by children; As a result of technology addiction and cyber bullying behaviors that negatively affect children's attitudes and behaviors, moral values ​​and beliefs, children can turn into individuals who do not go out into society, are introverted, cannot express their thoughts, have a weak imagination, depressive and suicidal individuals. The negative effects of social media on our children's moral values, social media; This is due to the fact that it can be used as a means of emotional exhibitionism for the sake of personal admiration and appreciation, and false and fabricated news can be used as a means of sedition by serving them as real.

Through emotional exhibitionism, which negatively affects the moral values ​​of our children, children are able to reveal their private and private things to everyone. Our children enjoy being visible on social media. Children can share their feelings, thoughts, joys, sorrows and special moments with people they do not know. If we leave body nakedness aside in terms of sexuality, we expose our naked souls on social media to people we don't know. From this perspective, we are all becoming actors of a spiritual pornography. To put it more clearly; today's man simply says, "Look at me, watch me and watch". 

We turn ourselves into photos and messages with our social media posts. By using social media as a mirror of images, we try to satisfy our desires to be liked and appreciated by making ourselves appear as something we are not, with messages that are emptied, gilded and do not belong to us, and photos that have been corrected with photo editor programs. We take selfies, share our image to others on social media. Today, our children are now looking for the image they share their value with, and they want to be liked through these images. 

The child who does not like the photo or message he shared on social media may feel worthless and become depressed, and may even think of committing suicide. However, as individuals and as human beings, we are more than images. We forgot that reality is not just an image. Our children today think that reality is just an image. Because children are gradually moving away from a mindset that will scrutinize what they see. It should not be forgotten that; It is possible for us to construct meanings from what we see, to deepen on images, and to associate these images with life.

To protect the negative effects of social media on the moral behavior of our children; As parents, we should constantly monitor the behavior of our children, ensure that parents become digital parents and ensure that their children gain a healthy personality, family and life culture in digital life, constant communication within the family should be established, rules should be set and implemented, new developments should be learned and followed with children, in short, each parent should be a digital guide.

We must accept that the source of our children's problems is not technology and that restrictions and prohibitions on the use of these technologies cannot be a solution to these problems. In order to protect our children, the adults of tomorrow, from the negative effects of social media and to enable them to benefit from its positive effects, they should be brought up in a conscious and safe technology usage culture within the family. When our children are exposed to these dangers, we should do our best as parents to calm and then alleviate the consequences of the dangers to which our children are exposed, in constant communication with experts.